((So long as you’re within, say, recall distance, and can reasonably expect to be able to call instructions and not be distracted by other tasks. If you’d rather train, say so; odds are there will be other opportunities one way or the other.))

"I'd be glad to help, you have helped out others alot and I think it's just fair that you get some in return."

“Oh…thank you.” Mina replied, a little taken aback by this thoughtfulness. Then more tentatively added, “You’re sure?”

Brona smiled slightly. "Well yeah, if I wasn't sure then why would I offer to do so?" he said, not really asking but making it sound more like a statement. Brona let out his Growlithe and it laid its head on his lap, letting itself be patted.

Brona looked off over the pond. "I don't really care what pokemon are considered powerful." he murmured. "I think all are powerful as long as their trainer loves them and knows how to train them properly. I have probably made some bad choices with my team, power-wise, but they are gorgeous aren't they?"

He looked back at Gastly training. "Even that one, though it's not what you consider beautiful I think there's something about it that's simply marvelous."

He stopped and smiled kindof emberrased. "I must sound like a fool babbling like this."
____________

"Alright, now say as embarrassed as you can that you are stuck. That you need someone to help you up." After the grunt calls for help, Zelgius cracks the grunt's head against the ground hard enough to knock him out, and hides again.

"I don't really care what pokemon are considered powerful. I think all are powerful as long as their trainer loves them and knows how to train them properly. I have probably made some bad choices with my team, power-wise, but they are gorgeous aren't they?" Mina nodded in agreement, one eye on her lure. "Even that one, though it's not what you consider beautiful I think there's something about it that's simply marvelous. I must sound like a fool babbling like this."

Mina shook her head. This wasn’t the kind of heart-to-heart conversation she’d expected to have, especially with Brona, but she saw no harm in continuing it. “No, I think you’re right; I think a lot of Pokemon aren’t considered powerful just because their trainers don’t have the creativity to use their real strengths.” She considered her next words for a moment before adding, “Which is sad, because that’s basically our job.”

----------------

((Later while fishing…))

After half an hour staring at the water, Mina was getting bored enough to wonder if she should change fishing spots. Maybe if I tried chumming the water I’d catch something…

Fortunately for her waning interest, she got a tug on her line not much later. After a decent fight with the rod (whose length owed less to the Pokemon’s power and more to Mina’s lack of upper body strength and substandard pole), she got it onto shore.

It was a Magikarp.

“YES!” Mina cheered, eyes alight with manic glee out of all proportion to her target. “Yes, yes, yes!” Only the knowledge that Brona was within spitting distance kept her from dancing and making an utter fool of herself.

"Now that's lucky, I'll step back and let you take care of it alone."

Mina just smiled happily in response. Then abruptly she remembered her manners and addressed the fish Pokemon. “Can I try to catch you Magikarp?”

“Karp!”

“Was that a yes?”

“Karp!”

Mina had to squint; the fish Pokemon had no neck to nod with and Mina wasn’t familiar enough with the Pokemon to make a guess on tone alone. But the fish Pokemon’s expression seemed reasonably happy, at least as far as she could tell.

“Okay…” Mina reached for Pikachu’s Pokeball—then remembered that her baby was still in the Pokemon Center with broken bones. Swearing at Misty under her breath, she went for Natu’s Great Ball instead. “Natu, I choose you!”

Her little green bird materialized, took one look at his opponent and gave Mina a look that said clearly: ‘You’re serious?’

“Don’t look at me like that, we’re going to catch it. Her,” Mina corrected herself, noting the color of the barbles was white.

Natu made a trill that sounded like ‘oooo-kay’ before turning back to his opponent, who was splashing with as much menace as a landed Magikarp could manage—which was to say, not very much.

“Use Night Shade!” Mina called. She reflected that she had at least learned not to take her opponent’s durability for granted; this time she wasn’t taking any risks.

Natu uses Night Shade!
Magikarp is hit for 21 damage!

Magikarp uses Splash!
But nothing happens!

Mina frowned thoughtfully. She tried to think if any of her Pokemon had anything she could use to weaken the Magikarp further without knocking it out, but as she didn’t have her Electric type here with Thunder Wave, she eventually realized the answer was ‘no’—something she’d need to work on in the future, she noted mentally, if she ran across other Pokemon she wanted to catch.

“Well, here goes.” She threw a Pokeball.

((Roll = 4))

The ball didn’t even shake the usual three times before emitting the ‘DING!’ of capture.

Now Mina did do a little victory dance, while Natu buried his beak under his wing at her antics.

----------------

Zelgius:

“I can’t! My foot’s stuck!” The Grunt parrots obediently. Then with rather more feeling, he adds, “Help!”

You then knock him out and prepare to ambush the next Grunt unfortunate enough to come your way. Down in the camp you hear voices:

“Figures. Jackson, Carter!” The speaker—the same voice as roped the unfortunate ‘Neil’ into investigating you—is interrupted with complaints of ‘We’re busy!’ and variants thereof. “I don’t care, go help him out.”

“No, I think you’re right; I think a lot of Pokemon aren’t considered powerful just because their trainers don’t have the creativity to use their real strengths.” She considered her next words for a moment before adding, “Which is sad, because that’s basically our job.”

"Yes it is. I wonder what strengths my newly-caught Twiggin will turn out to have, I know nothing of it and haven't even tested it in battle yet. You don't happen to know anything about it, do you?" Brona asked.

--------------------------

"WHOOHOO!!”

Now Mina did do a little victory dance, while Natu buried his beak under his wing at her antics.

Growlithe woke up from his lap at this, looking at it with curiosity and then looked up at Brona who laughed at the funny scene. It laid its head back down again, and Brona smiled up at Mina. "Congrats on your new pokemon, nice to see someone really cherish a catch like that."
____________

Draloed looks around the floor. The lamp had an eerie feeling to it, but draloed didn't really want to disturb it. He decides to explore the southernmost room.
____________
Protection From Everything.dota

"Yes it is. I wonder what strengths my newly-caught Twiggin will turn out to have, I know nothing of it and haven't even tested it in battle yet. You don't happen to know anything about it, do you?"

“Not much. We saw a couple when we fought off Tenma, and they knew Double Team and Bounce. But they were also Shadowed, so who knows what else was done to them?”

----------------

(Later: )

"Congrats on your new pokemon, nice to see someone really cherish a catch like that."

“Thank you!” Mina got a hold of herself, only to realize the ball had warped off to Box Storage. “Oh, that’s right. I better go get her; I’m not going to have a better chance to train her than now…back in a bit!” Mina bid Brona a brief farewell before heading to the Pokemon Center, intending to swap out one of her current team and then train.

----------------

Draloed:

((Roll = 41))

The room looks to have been covered in months if not years of grime, and then incompletely cleaned within the last day or so. By the window is another lamp on a pedestal; this one is unlit, and the air seems disproportionately chilly even with the storm raging outside. A swift search of the room turns up little of interest, but on the eastern side a rickety old desk holds the following items: an umbrella, a keychain, and a dustpan, all obviously out of place in the much older surroundings. They seem to have been deliberately placed, as a torn scrap of paper held in place by the umbrella reads in elegant cursive:

What do we make?

A second scrap in the same style reads:

_ _ S _

----------------

Stacey:

The woman you address doesn’t answer, and no one else pays any attention or seems to notice you at all. A tentative tap on the shoulder likewise yields no reaction, but she’s cold to the touch even through the antiquated clothes she is wearing.
____________Helnith Dice Roll Thread

Zelgius had been ready for something like this, he just counted himself lucky that only two and not three had been sent. He also was sort of dependent on Marick knocking out the first grunt with that headbut. The second grunt wouldn't be so lucky.

Zelgius though, Now they force my hand. A small part of him protested that he was a doctor, a protector of life, as he rotated his knife so that he could kill the second grunt better with it... And then stopped.

Maybe I don't have to kill him. He couldn't say anything to his Aaron, but he silently prayed, Please, just knock him out in one shot. I don't want to kill again...

Christian looked oddly at the maintenance crew, once again wondering what the black orbs were, and once again figuring they were cameras of sorts. Or maybe they where some sort of "shadowing" devices? Or maybe he was just stretching. No matter, he decided to walk towards them, but first, a little eavesdropping on the group heading from the cafeteria. If they say anything of interest it might be more worthwhile to eavesdrop on them rather than finding out what the black things are.

“Not much. We saw a couple when we fought off Tenma, and they knew Double Team and Bounce. But they were also Shadowed, so who knows what else was done to them?"

"Well bounce could be sortof useful I guess." he stopped then smiled wickedly. "Especially against the gym, as they use lots of fighting types. I just hope it learns some grass moves soon."

--------------------------

(later)

Brona watched her leave and looked back over the pond, then shook his head. "Might as well train another level, or what do you say Gastly?" he smiled as Gastly nodded, its wicked eyes gleaming. "Let's go then."
____________

Marick Headbutts the other Grunt, the impact generating a wet crack, and the goon collapses. You quickly knock the nearest down, pin him to the ground and hold your knife to his throat. The Grunt instinctively quiets, eyes wide with fright when he sees the still forms of his two companions on the ground nearby.

“Jackson? Carter?” The guard-goon’s tone is demanding now. “What’s going on up there?” After a moment you hear the Bandra’s voice again, this time more muffled. You then hear the sound of something being put down and a pair of footsteps fading away into the rain.

----------------

Christian:

The Grunts passing by are making no effort to conceal their intentions; it seems they’re going to go scour the hills south of Moontear for Pokemon, with one individual going on at length about his improved chances for a promotion should he succeed.

----------------

Brona (earlier):

"Well bounce could be sortof useful I guess. Especially against the gym, as they use lots of fighting types. I just hope it learns some grass moves soon."

“That’s right, I keep forgetting there’s a Gym here.” It never really occurred to Mina to look into that; it wasn’t as if they’d need eight Badges to take on Selene, after all. (And in the darkest depths of her mind, she admitted to herself she wasn’t at all eager to go up against that Pokemon, after her disastrous first encounter prior to coming to Helnith—but that wasn’t a reason she was willing to hand out in casual conversation.) Still, she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that others in the group had. “I take it you’re going to challenge it?”

----------------

Brona (later):

Mina rejoins you after swapping out her Houndour for her new Magikarp and joins you in training. ((Hope you don’t mind.)) Your Gastly levels up again around 5:30 PM, as the Pokedex reports:

Mina went back to the Center, wondering to herself who she ought to swap out. At last she decided on Houndour; he was close to the point where he was ready to evolve, but he was also going to need a lot of work to get there, and she’d need Pidgey, Natu and Oodramer more if Bandra attacked while she was training. She reasoned that she’d allocate the rest of today to work on her less experienced team members, then give him his turn tomorrow. Which reminded her; she meant to ask Sandshrew if the Ground type would mind putting her evolution off for a little while…

So Mina swapped out Houndour for Magikarp with her assurances, took a few minutes to check on Pikachu (still sleeping uneasily; the Nurse informed her she’d have to stay at least for the night), then headed back to the pond where Brona was still training.

Mina chose a spot she judged to be sufficiently out of Brona’s way and let out all her Pokemon. She couldn’t focus on more than one at a time, of course, but a little fresh air would be good for them all.

“Hey guys, we have a new friend; this is Magikarp. She’s going to need some training before she joins us on a regular basis, but in the mean time I’d like to get you introduced.”

Mina ran briefly through the introductions (as usual, forgetting to introduce herself). But as she did so, it occurred to her that introducing her new team member and then taking her off to train right afterwards was awfully close to snubbing the rest of them, and just might incur some jealousy from her other Pokemon. So she revised her plan at the last minute and took Sandshrew off for a while instead, leaving Magikarp to splash around with Oodramer in the pond and socialize with the rest of her team. For about an hour afterwards Mina directed the oddly hesitant Ground type to trace more and more intricate patterns on the ground while curled up. ((+1 level for Sandshrew))

Once she’d judged that Sandshrew had gotten enough of a workout to deserve a break, Mina sent her back to the others and called Magikarp over for her turn. She ran the red fish in laps back and forth in the pond (herself running, Magikarp swimming with a great deal of flopping—between the fish’s lack of coordination and Mina’s injuries their speeds were reasonably well matched) for most of an hour—and then squabbling broke out back with the rest of her team. ((+1 level for Magikarp))

Natu was shrieking at Sandshrew as if the Ground type had torn his wing off. Mina turned just in time to see him hop up on the other Pokemon’s head and peck her squarely on the skull. The Ground type, for her part, was looking very chastised.

“Natu, that’s enough,” she said sternly. “What’s going on here?”

Natu trilled back in a tone bizarrely like a child reporting wrongdoing on the part of a sibling.

“I can’t understand a word of that.”

Natu hopped up to her should and then buried himself against her neck, voice now deliberate and punctuated.

“That isn’t helping. She didn’t hurt you, what are you so upset about? Show me,” Mina added, since Natu didn’t have hands to pantomime with.

Natu answered back indignantly, fluffing himself, but didn’t move. Sandshrew waddled over and rubbed her head against Mina’s hand, looking oddly apologetic. This only confused Mina more; she really wished she could understand them better so she had some idea of what was going on.

Mina sighed.

“If that’s the best explanation you can give me, then I’m afraid I can’t help, but I don’t want you beating on your teammates again.” Mina shooed Natu back to the rest of the team. “Sandshrew, maybe you better come with me. We’ll practice some more,” she added, hoping the Ground type would understand she wasn’t being punished.

Mina kept an eye on Natu for the next hour while she trained Sandshrew. ((+1 more level for Sandshrew, 2 total)) She hoped this wasn’t going to be an ongoing problem; she had quite enough on her plate as it was. But no other squabbles broke out, and by 5:30 both Sandshrew and Magikarp had shown progress:

She considered training further, but she was getting hungry again and figured Brona would be as well—and maybe tired, depending on whether or not he’d gotten any sleep after the all-night trek to get here. So once it seemed he was pausing long enough she could do so without interrupting, she asked:

As Draloed before you, you find a pedestal bearing a bowl of oil by the windows on either end of the hall; both are lit and smell pleasant. There is also an assortment of cleaning implements lining the walls, and you hear the faint sounds of someone moving about the floor. After a moment or two a lady in rather grungy clothing emerges; she’s holding dirty cloths and a bottle of wood cleaner, and if the sweat making her hair stick to her skin is any indication, she’s been working hard. She notices you after a moment and asks distractedly, “Hello, can I help you?”
____________Helnith Dice Roll Thread

Zelgius whispers, "Goodnight" to the grunt before cracking (But not breaking) his neck.

(Since I read, "Fading away", I'm assuming that Zelgius has a little bit of time here, since the guy(s?) are walking away.)

He walks around, and takes all the pokeballs from each of the grunts that they are carrying, putting them down in the hidden culvert for privacy and dryness. The ones that are filled, he puts to one side. The others go into his pack. Same with whatever money and food that they were carrying (And anything else that might be useful.)

To the imprisoned pokemon, Zelg asks, "Do you want revenge on the people who treat you like slaves?" And then waits for just a little while (For any possible response) before sneaking around to behind the rocky ledge behind the leader's tent and releasing the grunt's pokemon in the center of the camp.
____________Pokemon Helnith character sheets!

"Indeed?" Christian thought "Promotion for catching pokémon, eh? Now what pokémon could be in Moontear that would allow you a promotion?" Christian wondered and took one more look at the maintenance crew before deciding that this was more interesting. Careful to not look directly at the grunts, Christian followed them in the corner of his eye to see where they were going. If they sat down by a table, Christian would sit down besides them or maybe engage in some activity that was besides where they sat. Or maybe he could engage them in some activity if they begun something like pool or cardgames or anything along those lines.
____________There is no good or evil, only madness. The question is "Just how mad are you?"

"I will challenge the gym later, yes. Probably after the tournament and my Haunter has evolved. I will also need to get my Twiggin to a higher level as it is one of my best options." Brona frowned. "Not sure which one to use last though, Growlithe is a good option I guess... but it's kinda fragile. Are you going to challenge the gym-leader later on?"

------------------------

(Later)

((Well now I mind a huge bit actually just jokin))

Brona was ecstatic as his Gastly increased a level. "Just one more to go now!" he exclaimed and gave his pokemon a hug, which nearly killed him considering the gas.
____________

Zack decides not to nickname his pineco at recent times. Then he quickly moves to the pokemon center to get his pokemons healed, so he afterwards can travel out again and capture a tailow.

At the center, he checks out the kitchen facilities and after having identified himself as one of the "heroes" (or at least, good guys), asks about the possibility of him using the kitchen and some of their foodstocks for some of the other "heroes".

Stacey looks behind her, making sure the woman wasn't talking to someone else. She then walks toward the woman, wondering if she would get any of those cold feelings. She considered poking the woman as well, but thought it might be a little rude, should the woman be a physical being.

You pick the Pokeballs off the Grunts’ belts and out of their pockets; there are eight of them all told. None are unused; presumably the Grunts weren’t expecting to have time to catch anything on this mission. There is a little bit of money however, and one of the Grunts is carrying a White Herb and a couple of granola bars, which you add to your own supplies. ((+900 PD, White Herb))

You give your short pep-talk to the encapsulated Pokemon, then sneak back to the north side of the camp while some of the remaining Grunts prepare to storm your previous hiding spot. (Fortunately no one seems to see you, as most of them are focusing in the opposite direction.) And then you risk a moment to throw out the Grunts’ Pokemon into the camp—they turn out to be mostly more of the Pokemon you encountered previously ((Geodude/Graveler, Wispaferyn, Machop)), along with a pair of Sandshrew and one scared little Mareep for variety’s sake.

Upon materializing, most of them mill around aimlessly. A few take off for the hills after a moment’s hesitancy. One absolutely brilliant Grunt declares:

“We’re under attack!”

And chaos ensues as the Bandra forces remaining engage the uncertain Pokemon.

((And now?))

----------------

Christian:

You follow the Grunts through the base and into the hanger, where the Grunts check out transportation (a van that’s totally nondescript except for the big spiky ‘B’ on the side). While you tail them, you hear the following snippets of conversation:

“…Salerdia! Seriously! If I caught that I bet Triple B would promote me—”

“—to Officer on the spot, yeah, we know Edwin…”

“…probably shouldn’t get your hopes up…((censored)) things are getting so scarce around here…”

“…lucky, we might find something else.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you hear? Down in Greshil…got the ((censored)) beat out of them by some kid with a Seedot. Heh. Stupid rookies…”

“…must’ve been about the time that bird was around.”

“That’s what I heard too, yeah.”

“Wonder if the kid knows where it is now? ”

“Who knows…”

----------------

Brona (earlier):

“I don’t know. There just doesn’t seem to be much point,” Mina opinioned. “What would I get out of a Gym battle that I wouldn’t get out of regular training?”

----------------

Zack:

You return to the Center without incident and have your Pokemon healed. Upon asking about using the kitchen and the food, the Nurse assures you she doesn’t mind—provided you clean up after yourself and don’t take more than you need.

----------------

Stacey:

The cleaning woman looks you over with a keen eye. “You mean the ghosts? Don’t worry your head about them; they’ve been dead some two hundred years now, they won’t bother you. The Ghost Pokemon might, but they usually only come out at night, as long as the lamps are lit.”
____________Helnith Dice Roll Thread